By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
CASEY Council will look into the feasibility of having the Endeavour Hills Police Station manned 24 hours a day.
The City of Casey resolved to write to Police Minister Wade Noonan to investigate the possibility after councillor Rafal Kaplon said the increasing population in the suburbs of Endeavour Hills, Hallam and Doveton had led to a “visible rise” in crime in the area.
He said the community “weren’t feeling safe” after the Endeavour Hills policing region had seen a car fire, murder, school arson and a shooting at the station itself – all in the past year.
Endeavour Hills police station is manned for 16 hours, seven days a week – from 7am to 11pm – while the Narre Warren and Cranbourne stations are staffed 24 hours a day.
After much deliberation of the intricacies of Cr Kaplon’s motion, the council agreed to write to both Minister Noonan and Shadow Police Minister Edward O’Donohue to “express the community’s need for the Endeavour Hills Police Station to be upgraded to a 24-hour station with the appropriate access, resources and staff”.
Casey police Inspector Paul Breen acknowledged the community’s concerns but said the ability to upgrade Endeavour Hills Police Station would depend on resources.
“Whether its achievable, that’s questionable,” Insp Breen said.
“If police command thought they could increase the operating hours, there may be an opportunity for that to occur.
“I would suspect most community members would prefer a 24-hour police station for the sense of wellbeing and safety, but the reality is police resources – we can’t have police everywhere, we just don’t have the numbers.
“In that sense, we have to rationalise our resources.”
According to the most recent Casey crime statistics, there were 3840 family violence incidents reported in 2014 compared to 3561 in the previous year, while in the same period the number of motor vehicle thefts in the municipality per 100,000 residents rose from 215.5 to 248.5.
The statistics, co-ordinated for the first time by the independent Crime Statistics Agency, also indicated a 12.2 per cent rise in the total number of reported offences in Casey from 15,460 in 2013 to 17,349 in 2014.
But Insp Breen previously said the increasingly large size of the municipality had to be taken into account when considering the rise of reported family violence incidents in the region.
In the same year it celebrated its 10th anniversary, the Endeavour Hills Police Station was the scene of the fatal shooting death of 18-year-old terrorism suspect Numan Haider last September.
Mr Haider, who it’s understood had his passport suspended about a week before the incident, was shot dead outside the station after he stabbed two police officers.
It’s believed Mr Haider had been seen brandishing an ISIS flag outside Dandenong Plaza Shopping Centre in the days leading up to his death.
Meanwhile last month a body identified as Dung Tri Pham was found in a burnt-out car in Eummemmerring in a suspected murder.
It’s believed Mr Pham was known by police to be involved with drugs.
The gruesome discovery came a year after 34-year-old Rani Featherston’s murdered body was found a stone’s throw away in an industrial Doveton street off the Princes Highway.
The investigation into her death is still ongoing.
Earlier this year two teenagers were arrested in relation to a suspicious fire which gutted the disused Endeavour Hills Secondary College gym last November.
